Democrats donate more than $67.2 million online after Biden’s exit
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Democrats greet President Joe Biden’s departure from the presidential race with an avalanche of cash, donating more than US$30 million (S$40 million) online on July 21.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON – Democrats greeted President Joe Biden’s departure from the presidential race
The massive amount is based on a New York Times analysis of the online ticker of contributions maintained by ActBlue, the leading site processing Democratic donations.
With Mr Biden gone and Vice-President Kamala Harris building momentum to claim the nomination, Democrats went online to contribute at a startling pace. Donations spiked from an average of less than US$200,000 per hour in the hours before Mr Biden quit to nearly US$11.5 million in a single hour later on July 21, the analysis shows.
As of 10pm, July 21 was ActBlue’s third biggest day for online donations in its history.
The ActBlue ticker accounts for all donations made on the platform, not just those made to Mr Biden or Ms Harris. It includes contributions made to nearly every Democratic House and Senate candidate and to an array of politically minded nonprofits.
“This might be the greatest fundraising moment in Democratic Party history,” wrote Mr Kenneth Pennington, a Democratic digital strategist, on the social platform X.
The previous single biggest day for donations on ActBlue came the day after Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September 2020. ActBlue processed roughly US$73.5 million that day. It is one of only two days the platform ever surpassed US$50 million in donations.
The latest deluge is significant as the party seeks to recover from a month of political infighting and stalled momentum in the race against former President Donald Trump. Party fundraising had slowed considerably among major Democratic donors in the weeks after Mr Biden’s poor debate performance.
